My Time Of The Month Is A Rather Touchy Subject
by Kenny's SpaceCadet
Summary: complete. Second year Remus Lupin has always kept his pain a secret from the other Maruaders. But this doesn't go over well with them... Watch as they embark on a quest, led by Sirius, to uncover Remus' secret...and to get him to admit it to them!
1. Table Dancing and Burn Marks

**Summary: **Second-year Remus Lupin has always been an independent person, always choosing to "go-it-alone" rather than ask for help. But his three best (and only) friends, led by Sirius, embark on a quest to help him...and figure out what he's keeping from them.

**Disclaimer: **What do you think?

**Chapter 1 - Table Dancing and Burn Marks**

Sirius Black had seen quite a few things in his lifetime. He'd seen his own father cursed by a Dark wizard, merpeople, a tarantula mating with a tortoise, and Professor Flitwick hex Professor Slughorn. He had gone on more adventures than any other Hogwarts student ever had, even more so than his best friend, James Potter; he had had a close shave with a vampire once in Knockturn Alley and just narrowly avoided a dementor during a visit to one of his imprisioned relatives in Azkaban. He even knew more spells than all the rest of the second-years combined, including the horrible curse meant to torture people, the Cruciatus Curse (he'd learnt it from his mother). But nothing, none of his knowledge, none of his morbid tarantulic memories, could have possibly prepared him for this.

"Look at me! I'm Lily Evans! I study so much that I sometimes forget to take showers! It's no wonder I have such hairy legs! I would charm the hair off, but I might get in _trouble! _And I would still smell like horse dung anyways, so I guess it doesn't matter!"

James Potter was wearing a dress. A frilly, purple dress that did not quite match with the long red hair he had conjured onto himself. He was standing on top of a table, now making obscene pelvic gestures while pretending to be his female classmate. The real Lily Evans was standing in front of the table, absolutely horrified. She screamed when the 12 year old James pulled some random Gryffindor boy up onto the table and started doing the obscene pelvic gestures on _him. "_And I'm a slut too! A hairy, smelly, disgusting, SLUT!"

Lily looked to be on the verge of tears. So did the boy when James had finally let him go.

The rest of the common room was not quite so somber, however. In fact, the laughter was so loud that Sirius was sure his other friend Remus had already cast some sort of silencing charm around himself so that he could study in peace. Remus loved to study; in fact, if Remus hadn't had friends like Sirius and James, he would surely be the top student in the whole school. However, frequent pranks made it difficult for him to get _everything _done perfectly.

Sirius went over to his said friend, who didn't even notice him approaching (due to the silencing charm). Sirius decided to have a little fun. He got out his wand, and, after levitating a medium sized black spider about four feet or so into the air, proceeded to position it above Remus' slightly open back collar. Sirius then whispered, "_Finite Incantatem,_" and the spider dropped inside Remus' shirt.

Remus shrieked. Not a quiet shriek, or a timid shriek, or a shy shriek. No, he let out a full-fledged bloody murder scream. A manly bloody murder scream, mind you. He then proceeded to jump up and feel around inside his shirt to try and get the bug out. The closer Gryffindors, who were already doubled over in hilarity from James' Lily impression, fell onto the floor and started rolling. Sirius thought this to be quite funny, and set a cheering charm upon his already painfully laughing classmates just to see if it was possible for them to laugh any more.

Remus' silencing charm had effectively been punctured by the scream. Remus spun around and came face-to-chest with his friend, and was about to start yelling, but apparently, he thought better of it, and just shook his head, and sat back down.

**

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**

Remus was an odd fellow in Sirius' opinion. Sure, he was nice, and bloody brilliant as well, but there was something off about him. Sirius did not know what it was, but whatever it was made Remus...well, shy. Remus was smart, he made funny jokes (when he worked up the courage to open his mouth in front of others), was incredibly nice and selfless, and even looked decent enough for a twelve year-old, so what did he have to be shy about? Sirius had often wondered if Remus was a Dark wizard in disguise. Or, if this was all an elaborate Slytherin prank - get a funky kid on the train to choose Gryffindor in the hat and then, as soon as he is strong enough, he can kill them all. (Sirius would have done this himself to all of the Slytherins if he had been put in that dreadful house).

But the more Sirius got to know Remus Lupin, the less he became worried about Slytherins and Dark wizards and the more he became worried about Lupin himself. Remus was an exceptionally independent boy. Even if Remus couldn't possibly do something on his own, he wouldn't _dare _ask for another's help. It was almost like he was afraid to ask anyone for their assistance. And from what Sirius was seeing, Remus seemed to need it - it appeared that something was going on with him.

At first, it seemed as if Remus was merely a somewhat ill and accident prone child. He was sort of clumsy (from what Sirius saw of him), and often ended up running into walls or tripping down the stairs. The bruises that often adorned his body seemed to almost always have an explanation: "Well, I was walking to the library, and all of a sudden, the staircase started moving, and it sort of startled me, so I tripped...lucky I fell forwards instead of backwards, huh?" Remus was so easy to trust that an explanation such as this was eaten up like chocolate by the other three boys. And Remus was often sick as well, and he had spent a total of six nights in the hospital wing during their first year.

But that night, after the spider incident and James' impression of his "most mortal enemy besides Snivellus", Sirius noticed something on Remus that could not have possibly been inflicted by a moving staircase. Remus was changing into his pajamas, and instead of going into the bathroom to do so, he just changed rapidly in the dormitory. (This was the first time he had ever done so, Sirius had noted. Remus did not like the other boys to see his body in any way possible.) Remus had done it so fast that Sirius almost had not seen it. But on Remus' right arm, there was a particularly long slash.

"Hey, Remus, what's that gash on your arm?" Sirius asked.

"What gash?" Remus said, looking down at his now fully covered arm as if expecting to see it there.

"Well, it's underneath your sleeve, you dolt," Sirius said dryly.

"Oh, that's not a gash," Remus explained. "It's, uhm, it's a burn. I burnt myself badly on my kitchen stove a few years ago..." Remus blushed, seeming to be embarrassed about his clumsiness.

"Can I see it?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"You already did," Remus snapped, already seeming to have gotten over his bout of mortification.

"But I want to see it like, up close," Sirius asked, sounding even more keen.

"No. I am tired, I want to go to sleep," Remus said, and then pulled the curtains sharply shut.

Sirius didn't think the fact that he had never seen it before that night was important at all, because he had never seen Remus' bare arm at all before, so it wasn't like he could tell if it had been there or not before.

But a month later, Sirius and Remus happened to be catching a shower at the same time. Remus had been in there first, so Sirius completely expected him to be done first too. But, when Sirius got out of his stall, Remus was still showering. Sirius shrugged and, after wrapping a towel around his hips, went to the sink to do his bedtime regimen of teeth-brushing and facial cleansing. This took him about five minutes, and Remus still wasn't done.

"Hey, mate, you drowned in there or something?" Sirius asked.

Sirius did not get any response, and got worried. Instead of being sane and just saying Remus' name a couple times for a response, Sirius yanked the curtain open completely to confirm that Remus was alive himself.

Remus yelled and pulled the curtain shut. "Get the hell out of here!" Remus shouted.

But none of Remus' shouting would make Sirius forget what he had seen -- Remus, his second-best friend, was covered in marks, bruises, scratches...nothing that could have happened from a few miscalculations of self-direction. No, running into walls would not have done this to Remus.

Sirius tried to discuss it with Remus when Remus came up to the tower twenty minutes later.

"I'm a clumsy little freak, ok?" Remus supplied as explanation. "I run into** a lot** of things, especially at my mother's, because her illness distracts me from thinking about normal things..."

Ah yes. The most suspicious part of Remus John Lupin's existence at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. On the months where Remus was not staying in the Hospital Wing with some new malady that involved an overnight visit, he was seeing his _mother, _who was also sick. She didn't contract many illnesses like Remus did, though; she was terminally ill with Brain Cancer, and every month could have been her last. At least, that was what Remus had explained to them one time. "She's a Muggle, and doesn't have the magical power to fight things like that," he had said with a small voice.

Sirius couldn't help but noticing something a little fishy about the whole thing though. It wasn't as if he didn't trust Lupin -- no, in fact, Sirius trusted Remus the most out of all his friends. But the times that these things happened were _weird; _it was almost as if Remus' illnesses and motherly visits were on a **schedule. **Because, almost exactly a month after he visited his mother, he would then get sick. Then, he would sometimes get sick almost exactly a month after that. Or, after being sick, almost exactly a month later, he would go back to visit his mother. Sirius hadn't thought of it much until the end of their first year. Then, when he really noticed, he started making a calendar.

Remus had disappeared on the night of September 5th, right after they came back to school. Next, he was gone on October 4th. November 2nd. December 2nd. He went home for the holidays, and when he came back, he didn't disappear until January 30th. And now, it was February 17th, and if Sirius predicted right, Remus would be disappearing on either the 28th or the 29th (seeing as it was a leap year this year.)

Sirius had laid up late thinking about it. The whole schedule and the oddity of it. About Remus, and how freaky he was sometimes. About the bruises and scratches that covered him. _There's no way that he's that clumsy, _Sirius reasoned with himself. _How could he possibly end up with all of those things? Maybe he's got some haters at his mum's house..._ Sirius tried not to think about Remus' abused body, as it made him want to vomit.

But that's when he realized something, something very important...

"His burn disappeared," Sirius whispered into the pitch darkness.

**

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So, what do you think? This is going to be a kind of short story, I am only thinking like six chapters or something...but who knows where it will end up.

Anyways, I hope that this isn't too cliche or anything. I actually really like how it turned out, I can't believe I was actually able to write this :D


	2. The Investigation

**Disclaimer: **If every simple song I wrote to you would take your breath away I'd write it all, even more in love with me you'd fall, we'd have it all...

**Chapter 2 - The Investigation**

"James, I tell you, he had this enormous burn on his...uhm, I don't know, I think it would have been his left arm, but I'm not so good with directions...anyways, he had this enormous burn a month ago, but it disappeared!" Sirius exclaimed.

Sirius and James were lounging around in the dorm, since Peter had set off a dungbomb, effectively kicking everyone out of the common room until Filch decided to come and get rid of the scent. Peter had gotten caught, however, and somehow dragged Remus along with him to detention, therefore leaving Sirius and James alone in the dormitory; a perfect chance for Sirius to bring up his findings about Remus to him.

"So? He healed," James supplied distractedly, for he was in the middle of reading an involving book explaining how to get away with various pranks and schemes.

"He said he got it _years_ ago! It couldn't have just magically healed in a month!" Sirius yelled.

"So, Madam Pomfrey has a scar-reducing ointment and Remus asked for it while he was sick," James replied. "Not everything is a conspiracy, Sirius."

"Maybe it wasn't even a burn," Sirius said, obviously not hearing anything that James had just told him. "It didn't look like a burn to me when I saw it, but that's what he said it was...I didn't see it for long though, so I don't know."

"Me neither. Look, why don't you just talk to him about it?" James asked, like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"I've already tried that! He is adamant that it comes from his own clumsiness!" Sirius retorted.

"Well, maybe it does," James said in such a tone that told Sirius that the conversation was over.

**

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**

Though James had successfully ended their earlier conversation, Sirius was not ready to give up on figuring out what was going on with Remus. No, he wasn't even close to being ready.

He knew that asking Remus about it straightforward was not a good idea though. Remus had gotten angry when Sirius and him had talked about it before, and Remus _never _got angry. Who knows what Remus would do to him! No, Sirius knew that this was going to take a little bit of investigating on his own to figure out.

Sirius did not manage to figure much out at first. He had started out his investigation with trying to catch glimpses of Lupin's various scars and bruises. The only time he was really able to do this was in the shower, so he had been attempting to shower at the same time as Remus as often as possible. However, this approach did not amount to much; Remus had caught him and was now certain that Sirius was a gay pervert who was trying to rape him. Remus never came within 10 feet of Sirius when they were alone together.

So Sirius gave up on that.

Remus' disappearance came on the expected date; February 29th. Sirius went up the hospital wing and asked Madam Pomfrey if he could see him.

"Whatever are you talking about? Remus is visiting his mother," Madam Pomfrey said.

"But...he said that he wasn't feeling well, and that he was going to skip going to his mother's and instead go to the Hospital Wing," Sirius lied.

"Well, I can assure you that he did go to his mother's," Madam Pomfrey said uncertainly. "Now, go back to your common room, I have work to do!"

Peter had been informed of The Investigation. During Remus' absence, after Sirius had come back from the Hospital Wing, they were all discussing their aloof friend.

"Sirius, what do you think is going on with him?" Peter asked.

"I don't know! If I knew we wouldn't be doing this Investigation!" Sirius snapped.

"I didn't ask what you knew," Peter mumbled. "I was just saying, well, what are your guesses? Maybe if we make a whole bunch of guesses, we'll be able to narrow it down to the things that it could and couldn't be...or something...I don't know..." Peter often did this; he came up with great ideas but then was so unsure of himself that he played it off like he knew it was a bad idea and was only suggesting it because there were no other suggestions.

"Hey! That's a good idea," James said while grabbing a piece of parchment. "Now, we'll just say ideas, and I'll write them on this paper, and then go over them when we're done!"

"Maybe he's got a bully?" Sirius said.

"Or an abusive father?"

"Or an abusive mother!"

"She's sick, though, Peter."

"He could really be as clumsy like he says."

"He could have a rather large dog."

"Or a cat."

"Or a tiger!"

James chose not to write down the most recent suggestion, made by Peter.

"He could have a bed, or some other piece of furniture or something, that like, is cursed..."

"Or maybe his mother is a dragon!"

"He could be a werewolf?"

"His MOTHER could be a werewolf!"

"Remus' family could be in league with Dark wizards..."

"Snape is his half-brother!"

"Snape is his mother!"

Sirius and James both wondered just where Peter was coming up with this crazy ideas, all having to do with Remus' mother. "Peter, I don't think it has anything to do with his mother," Sirius said.

"Well, he goes and sees her every month, it's got to have something to do with her, right?" Peter said logically. "Even if she's not sick...she could be an evil monster who forces him to come home so that she can abuse him!"

"Okay...mother - evil," James added to the list, muttering it under his breath. "So, let's see what we've got."

James read over what they had brainstormed. "Well, I think that we can rule out that his mother is a dragon...I mean, seriously, dragons can't breed with humans, and we met Remus' father at the train. And Snape can't be his mom. Everything else is potentially possible, but I really don't think he or his mother is a werewolf...but, it would make sense for his mother to be one, wouldn't it? I mean, she's 'ill', isn't she?"

They all contemplated this for a moment before Sirius spoke up. "I think it might be abuse of some sort though. From someone else. Like, his father, or a bully who lives by him, or even his mother," he said, with a nod towards Peter. "Obviously, he doesn't want to tell us where he got all of these marks from, which must mean he's embarrassed! I mean, most abused kids are like, embarrassed about allowing themselves to get hurt or something, right?"

"I don't know, I'm not abused," James supplied unhelpfully.

"What, do you mean that parents actually hit their children?" Peter asked, a frightened tone in his voice. "I mean, I can see them yelling, but like, what if they were as mean as we are to Snivellus? That would be horrible!"

All three shook as they imagined Remus, already small for his age, huddling himself pitifully in a corner as his father hit him over the head with a wooden chair.

"Ok, guys. Maybe we should talk to him," Sirius said. "But I can't. Because he, kind of, doesn't talk to me alone anymore," he mumbled.

Peter and James did not know of Sirius' bathroom excursions, and both found it absolutely hilarious when they learnt that Remus now thought Sirius was gay and trying to find a chance to rape him.

"Hey, Sirius, who do you think is hotter, Remus or Snape?" James asked. The facial expression Sirius adopted was worth all of the pain Sirius tried to inflict on him.

**

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**

It had been decided that James would be the one to approach Remus about their new theory. Sirius dragged Peter off to the library to work on a "Potions assignment".

Remus was now alone with James in the dorm. He was sitting at the desk, hunched over as he filled out a chart of some sort. James sidled up to him and looked over his shoulder surreptitiously. Remus was filling out a chart for Astronomy, it looked like.

"Hey, Remus," James asked. Remus jumped and turned around amazingly quick, covering his chart as if he expected James wanted to copy it. "Hey, calm down man, I'm not trying to rape you or anything..." James said this only because he wanted to see the effect it had on Remus after the whole Sirius-in-the-shower thing.

"R-right," Remus mumbled. James sat back on the nearest bed and motioned for Remus to turn his chair around.

"Ok, I need to ask you something," James asked seriously.

"Yeah, sure!"

"Have you ever been beaten up?"

Remus raised his eyebrow. James knew that this was certainly a random question to be asking.

"I...yeah. By the Slytherins, in first year, you know," Remus muttered. He was still embarrassed about that. This had been before Remus had been accepted into their group. A mean group of fifth years had taken it upon themselves to dangle Remus by his ankle right above the lake, and then drop him in. Remus had emerged from the lake fine, but they weren't finished with him yet. Remus only escaped because Sirius, James, and Peter had happened to notice what was going on and wanted to save their roommate from a cruel and horrible fate, even though they thought he was much too weird to really be their friend yet.

James' eyes widened. This must have been it; the Slytherins were beating Lupin up in secret! "Oh. Ok. Yeah, I was just wondering. Sirius is constantly talking about how he beat up all of his neighbors, and I've gotten into a few fights myself, so I was curious as to what my other friends have done." James winked, and then said something about leaving Remus in peace while he went and nicked some food from the kitchens.

Of course, he didn't go to the kitchens, but rather to the library, where he told Sirius and Peter what he had found out.

"It's so obvious now!" Sirius said, smacking himself on the head. "Who else would want to beat him up? He's a perfectly wonderful person, the Slytherins are the only ones who could possibly lay a hand on him!"

"Well, I'm sure you'll be laying a few hands on him," Peter said casually, as if he was discussing who had won the latest Quidditch match.

James snorted. Sirius seethed.

**

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**

That's when Remus started getting followed by the gang. They tried not to let him find out, and for the first week, they figured out exactly where he was going without him suspecting any different. They were obviously able to see him during lessons, but they also found themselves tailing him whenever he went to the bathroom, and one of them always found an excuse to accompany him to the library.

Then, Peter pointed out that if Remus was seen with them, the Slytherins wouldn't dare attack him. So, the Marauders started deliberately _ignoring _Remus in the open, pretending to be angry with him, whilst really following him around under the Invisibility cloak.

Of course, this apparently left Remus quite disheartened, seeing as they were the only ones who actually spoke to him.

Sirius decided that a stop must be put to this as soon as he found Remus crying in the bathroom; it certainly couldn't be for his own good if they were pushing him to tears.

"You guys, we've got to tell him what we're doing, I am not about to watch him sob his eyes out again," Sirius said firmly that evening to James and Peter. "Tonight, before we go to sleep, let's just ask to tail him under the cloak."

James looked skeptical. "Why would he let us follow him around?"

"I don't know, he's Remus. He probably won't. But I don't want to make him cry."

Remus chose that moment to walk into the dorm. He gave a small gasp and then looked down at his shoes rapidly, shuffling dejectedly over to his bed.

The other three came and surrounded his bed. Remus looked up and looked as though he expected them to beat him up or something.

"Hey, Remus, buddy, we've got something to tell you," James started. He then explained why they hadn't been speaking to him. Remus had gone from looking horrified to amused.

"You guys, I'm really glad you are so concerned for me," Remus said in his soft voice, "but I'm not getting beat up by Slytherins. I can take care of myself when it comes to them, don't worry. My bruises come from myself, like I've been saying all along! I really am quite an absent-minded chap, and I run into quite a lot of stuff. You guys just don't see the bruises forming when I run into walls." Remus then said that he was one of those people who formed bruises easier than others.

"Can't we follow you around under the cloak some more just to make sure they don't try to bother you?" Sirius asked.

"I...you can follow me, but you aren't going to find anything..." Lupin said, sounding slightly uncertain.

James and Peter were satisfied. If Remus had given them permission to follow, he must have been telling the truth. But Sirius would not take this to mean that The Investigation was over. _There is no way that that huge gash burn thing came from a wall. I refuse to believe it._

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Thanks for reviewing! It means a lot to me. :)


	3. Professor McGonagall's Interrogation

Well, I am getting some good positive feedback...

**Disclaimer: **These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there's just too much that time cannot erase...

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**Chapter 3 - Professor McGonagall's Interrogation**

All of the Marauders (minus Remus, of course) had agreed that Remus indeed could protect himself quite effectively from the Slytherins once they had seen Remus do a rather complicated Bat-Bogey Hex on Snape when he'd tripped him. But none of them could deny that, no matter how well he could protect himself from other kids, there was no way he would be able to protect himself from a full-grown wizard.

"And abused children wouldn't fight back anyways," Sirius was busy explaining to Peter as they both 'worked' on their Defense Against The Dark Arts essay on Dark creatures. "See, I've been reading up on it, and it makes perfect sense; a child isn't going to hit their own father, right? They think it's all their own fault, and that to fight back would make them even more evil than they already were! They think that they deserve the horrible punishments, even though to any outside eye it's quite obvious that they don't deserve it at all."

Peter nodded, still somewhat amazed that there were people out there awful enough to beat up their own children. "I can't believe that someone who could hurt him like that could ever create someone as nice as Remus, though," Peter ventured to say.

"Yeah...well, no one ever thought that a family as snake-like as mine could render a Gryffindor, but look at me!" Sirius seemed to think that this small piece of evidence was proof that Remus was indeed being abused by his own parents.

The Marauders had been planning to use Remus' next absence as a planning period; they had been secretly talking, but now they were going to be able to do everything without having to walk on eggshells around their friend. However, Sirius ruined this little bit of extra planning by pissing off their strictest teacher, Professor McGonagall, and getting detention on the very same day that Remus told them he was visiting his mother ("She's really sick this time, they think she might die!").

Sirius grumbled unacommadatingly as he sorted through McGonagall's files. "Why does she need to remember so much stuff?" Sirius mumbled to himself. "Bleh. Who would want to transform a squirrel into a pinecone anyways?"

"What was that, Mr. Black?"

"Nothing Professor..."

Sirius looked out of the window onto the grounds. The moon shone brightly, shining off of the lake, illuminating the grounds as if it were day. Sirius was caught off guard when he saw someone walking on the grounds though. It was well after curfew, so whoever this was, they must be some sort of trouble maker.

Sirius pulled himself closer to the window in order to get a better look. He was startled when he realized that there were _two _people walking (_In broad moonlight too, _Sirius thought with a grimace). And they were walking **directly towards the Whomping Willow.**

_That looks like a teacher! _Sirius thought. _A woman teacher and a boy student! Walking right towards the Whomping Willow! Are they crazy?!?_

Sirius almost said something to Professor McGonagall, but then he realized that somehow, they had made the Whomping Willow stop thrashing around. Sirius watched in awe as they both walked towards the trunk, and then, they disappeared.

Sirius was seriously startled now, and jumped back from the window.

"Mr. Black, is something the matter?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"N-no, Ma'am," Sirius said, slightly shaken.

It took Sirius the better part of the next half hour to get over the odd scene he'd witnessed and to realize that Professor McGonagall was the perfect person to talk to about his Remus problem! All he had to do was tell her that he suspected abuse, and she would have to investigate. However, Sirius knew that just one suspicion was not going to be enough. It would work better if James and Peter were there too. _Or, if James and Peter and I all brought it up separately! _Sirius thought.

"Professor, ma'am?" Sirius asked.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering...you know how Remus goes home to visit his mom all the time?" Sirius asked.

Professor McGonagall looked up sharply. "What of it?"

"Wellll..." Sirius drew his word out, trying to create suspense, but obviously only succeeding in annoying his teacher. "Uhm, what if, when he went home, er...someone got mad at him?"

McGonagall did not quite get what he meant, obviously, as she was sitting there looking quite confused.

"Well, you know when parents get mad, they punish you by making you sit in a corner or on your bed or sometimes, they give you a spanking. Wellll...what if Remus did something really bad, and his parents (probably his dad, since his mom is sick...) lost his temper? And hurt him? Like, a lot worse than a spanking?"

Professor McGonagall suddenly looked very relieved, for some reason. "Oh, Sirius dear," - Sirius noted that this was the first time she had ever used his first name - "Remus' parents are nice people, very nice people, and the idea, the idea that they'd be abusing him is absurd!"

"But Professor, he comes back with all these bruises and scratches and this one time he had this really long scratch down his arm - although he told me it was a burn - and I'm really worried!"

"Black," McGonagall said sharply. "Remus is not being abused by his parents."

"Can't you at least check into it?"

"NO! Your detention is over, get out!"

Sirius scrambled to pick up his stuff and get out of the room.

**

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**

James and Peter each tried to talk to McGonagall about Remus, but she would have nothing to do with either of them.

James had attempted first. After class, he lagged around behind, and then went to talk to her.

"Professor, I have a problem," James said.

Professor McGonagall looked at James expectantly. "Yes?"

"Well, uh, you see...you know Remus?"

"Yes, I know Remus, he is only the star student of Gryffindor and the sweetest boy I've ever met," Professor McGonagall answered sardonically.

"Welllll..." Sirius often rubbed off on his three friends, and the art of creating suspense had been used on James so many times, that he had started doing it too. "I noticed, the other day, that he has many scratches and scars..."

"And you want to know if he's being abused?" Professor McGonagall correctly guessed.

"Er...well, yes, I was wondering if you could check into it - "

"Potter, Remus is not being abused by his parents in any way, shape, or form. Now, get out of my classroom before I give you detention!" she snapped.

James high-tailed it out of there.

Peter's attempt had been quite hilarious, really. He went up to her at dinner, in front of the entire school.

"P-professor?" he asked.

"Yes, Pettigrew, what is it, I am in the middle of my dinner!" she said, already annoyed with him.

"I'm sorry, I am not meaning to interrupt your dinner...but, well, I was wondering, Remus has a lot of scratches and - "

"REMUS IS NOT BEING ABUSED!" McGonagall shouted. The whole hall looked up to the table and saw the strict looking witch red in the face with anger as she glared furiously at Peter. Peter squeaked and ran. Remus, who had just gotten back from his mothers right before dinner, was very shocked indeed.

**

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**

Finally, they all three came and tried to talk to her together.

"Please, Professor, before you yell at us, can you hear us out?" was the first thing out of Sirius' mouth.

She did not look pleased.

"Okay, we accept that Remus isn't being abused at home," Sirius said. "We're confident that if you aren't going to look into it that you must be sure, because you would never put your students' welfare at risk." Sirius said this to a) butter McGonagall up so that she'd be more willing to talk, and to b) get her to check into it to prove that she cared about her students if she had not been completely sure.

"So, we were wondering..." James continued, pausing for dramatic effect.

"Yes, you were wondering?" Professor McGonagall snapped.

"We were wondering if you know where all of his scratches come from!" Peter piped up.

McGonagall took a deep breath and appeared to be counting to twenty in her head. Finally, she spoke. "Boys...this is not something that I wish to be discussing with you..."

"Do you think we wish to be discussing it either!?" Sirius suddenly blasted, seeming to have snapped. "This is our bloody best friend, and he looks like someone used him to clean a bloody cactus! Do you think we want to be talking about the ways in which he could be getting hurt?? Do you think that we like discussing his injuries, not knowing if he's okay, if this time he's not going to come back alive!??"

Professor McGonagall just sighed. "Boys..."

"Don't 'Boys' us!" Sirius said, him always being the one to not notice that there was an age difference between him and the professors. "I am not leaving until you can explain why Remus looks like a bloody punching bag!"

"Language, Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall reprimanded lightly. "I believe you boys have Astronomy tonight? I would get working on that homework that you haven't finished yet. Now, get out of my office. NOW."

"No, I - "

"NOW, MR. BLACK!"

And so Sirius, James, and Peter trudged sullenly up to the tower, nowhere nearer to figuring out Remus' mystery than before. "This Investigation doesn't seem to be getting anywhere," Peter said sadly, voicing the thoughts that all three had been having.

Maybe their friend could simply not be saved.

* * *

Yeah, a lot of dialogue...sorry...next chapter is going to be grand though.


	4. Discoverization

I have found myself actually wanting to write this. It's a funny thought.

**Disclaimer: **I did not realize that you were under the impression that I actually own Harry Potter. Well, you give me more credit than I'm worth...

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Discoverization**

Sirius was not in a good mood. Not that he often was -- he sulked more often than the other three Marauders put together -- but this was different. He had a reason this time. And the reason happened to be sitting five feet away from him, sitting cross-legged on a bed, his nose deep inside _Quidditch Through The Ages._

Sirius grumbled, hitting his desk with his hand in anger. Remus looked up from his book curiously. "Sirius, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he said curtly. He and Remus were alone in the dormitories, while James and Peter were writing up some essay in the library. They had expressly told Sirius that he was to stay with Remus ("What if he tells you something, or you get an important clue?"), even though they were aware of Remus' irrational fear of him.

"Okay..." Remus said, sounding somewhat put out.

Sirius looked up at his friend sharply, noticing the quite obvious change in demeanor. "You don't look too good," he said. "You look kind of sad..."

"Oh, don't worry about me!" Remus said. He was smiling now though; he seemed a little bit happier already.

Sirius couldn't understand it. His friend was quite possibly the oddest person he'd ever met. His reactions were never quite what Sirius expected. He smiled at the weirdest things, and got sad over the smallest things. He kept his secrets inside all of the time, never asking for help. Even in Potions, his worst class, he refused to ask for assistance. He loved to help everyone else, however. He was the most selfless and generous boy Sirius had ever met...but he didn't seem to realize that keeping things from his friends made them angry. And it was Remus' deepest fear to make someone else angry,

Sirius thoughts turned now to McGonagall. _I cannot believe her! Does she even care about Remus at all? Does she not see the damage? Does she not notice? I don't know how she can't! And she has the gall to tell me to do my Astronomy homework when Remus is in danger!_

Sirius grumbled again and stared down at the stupid moon-chart he'd been assigned for the said Astronomy work. "Bloody moon!" he said, not caring about his language or his volume. "Why do I care when it's waxing and waning?!"

Sirius did not spare Remus a glance, or else he might have seen how pale he'd become.

Sirius filled out the chart (that he'd conveniently left for the last minute) with the moon in it's various phases. He marked a full moon on March 29th, which had been just two nights prior. "Oh, that was a full moon, no wonder I could see the grounds so well that night," Sirius muttered to himself, recalling the freakish scene he'd witnessed where people had walked right into the Whomping Willow. "Remus, I saw something funny the other night," he mused. "There were two people, one adult woman and one kid, and they walking right into the Whomping Willow! I don't mean, they bumped into it...they went inside it! Like, inside the trunk!" Sirius turned around to see what Remus thought of the strange occurrence.

"Oh...that's...i-interesting," Remus muttered, not looking up from his book.

"Yeah," Sirius said, not wanting to continue the conversation that Remus so obviously didn't want to have. _Man, what's stuck up his bum today?_

Sirius marked a full moon on February 29th as well. Something about February 29th seemed to ring a bell somewhere in Sirius' mind...

After marking a few more waxing and wanings, and a new moon, Sirius got to the full moon that had happened a month before, on January 30th. All of a sudden, Sirius was struck by an odd thought. "Hmm..." Sirius went to his trunk and brought out his Let's Figure Out What's Wrong With Lupin Journal, not even bothering to keep it hidden, seeing as Remus was not paying the slightest attention.

Sirius went to his calendar -- Remus had been missing on March 29th, February 29th, January 30th... Sirius filled out a few more moons and found that a full moon occurred on December 31st and December 2nd. December 31st was during holidays...but December 2nd was also a day that Remus was missing! November 2nd, October 4th, September 5th...each full moon coincided with a day that Remus was gone!

_'"You guys, I'm really glad you are so concerned for me," Remus said in his soft voice, "but I'm not getting beat up by Slytherins. I can take care of myself when it comes to them, don't worry. __**My bruises come from myself, **__like I've been saying all along!"'_

Suddenly, the pieces all came together in Sirius' mind. The disappearances, the scratches...why Remus wanted to keep it a secret!

"My, you know what I hate Remus?" Sirius said.

"Uhm...what?"

"I hate secrets," Sirius said, suddenly somewhat aggravated. "I hate it when people keep secrets from me. Like, my parents, all they ever do is tell me lies while hiding the truth. I hate it when the truth is hidden like that!" Sirus said, standing up. "And James and Peter! They like keeping secrets from me, like, the fact that they're best friends with each other and not with me! Oh, I hate it even more when I figure out a secret that someone has kept secret from me. Like James and Peters. I hate it when people are so stupid that they can't even properly hide what they want to hide from me!"

Remus did not seem to have a response.Sirius did not rant any more, but grabbed his moon chart and journal. "I'm going to the library," he said shortly. "Have fun with your Quidditch book."

**

* * *

**

James and Peter were actually doing the essay that they said they were going to be doing. At least, they were, until Sirius burst into the library, brandishing his moon chart. He did not look quite as angry as he had just a few moments before. "I figured it out!"

They were surprised, to say the least.

"You guys, look at this chart, and look at the dates he's been absent," Sirius commanded. James saw the pattern quickly, but it took Peter a little prodding.

"I don't understand!" he complained.

"Peter, use your brain! Remus has been missing on every full moon that we've been at school! That can't be a coincidence. There is no way that's a coincidence. And you know what else? He told us himself that every injury he has comes from himself!" Sirius was raving. Stark raving. "You know what he is? He's a bloody werewolf!"

James and Peter both smacked themselves on the head. "How could we have been so stupid?" James moaned. "It's bloody obvious!"

Sirius slumped down into a chair. "You guys...this isn't some game anymore...The Investigation has created a pretty big problem..."

"Well...I mean, it's only once a month, right?"

Sirius looked over at Peter sharply. "Use your head, fool! If Remus is a werewolf, he is endangering us every moment we're near him! He could tear us to shreds! He could eat us! He could fucking KILL US!"

"B-But...Remus would never do that!" Peter said defensively. "He's the nicest person I've ever met, and he probably does something really special each month so that he can protect us from him! Obviously, he cares enough about us to not kill us!"

"He'd get expelled if he killed us!"

"Sirius," James sighed, "Remus obviously kept this secret for this very reason. He knew we'd leave him as soon as we found out." James sounded sick.

"Leave him?" Sirius scowled. "We're not gonna leave him! But we're gonna fucking make him sorry he ever kept it a secret from us, that's for sure!"

Peter and James exchanged a look that clearly said 'that kid is a lunatic'.

"Did you say anything to him before you left?" James inquired, cocking his brow.

"Er...I said I hated people who kept secrets," Sirius muttered.

"You idiot! I bet he's upstairs beating himself up because of that!"

Sirius muttered something about lousy lying friends.

"Sirius..."

"Okay, okay, you're right! I was too harsh on him. I'm sorry."

"Apologize to him!" James said with a glare.

"I can't! Then he'll know we know!" Sirius protested.

"Why aren't we telling him?" Peter asked.

Sirius could not think of a good answer. "Er...well, isn't it obvious?"

"No," James and Peter said together.

"Welllllllllllllllll...if we don't tell him...we can have a little fun," Sirius said, his sulking features rearranging themselves into his trademark I'm-ready-for-a-prank grin.

James scowled now. "Sirius, that's cruel. What are we going to do, talk about how much we hate werewolves everytime he's near us? Are we going to ask him what he thinks is the best way to to confine one at full moon?"

"Well..." Sirius had to admit that that sounded a bit harsh. "Okay okay. We won't do that either. We'll just...we'll just...we'll just wait until he tells us himself, then..."

Peter and James looked satisfied. "Well, we're done with this essay, lets go back upstairs," Peter suggested.

**

* * *

**

All three Marauders could not help but look at their small friend in a completely different light. It is almost impossible to look at someone the same when you figure out that once a month he disappears to go and transform into one of the Ministry's most dangerously classified creatures.

Remus looked up when they walked in, but looked down immediately again. "Hey guys..." he muttered, obviously feeling cruddy.

Sirius had gotten over his anger with his wolfish friend on the walk back to Gryffindor tower and was now struck with complete and utter admiration for his friend's bravery. _Must be why he's a Gryffindor, since it's obvious he should be in Ravenclaw...but now Ravenclaw would be able to do _that _every month._ "Hey buddy," he said, plopping down on the bed next to him. Sirius leaned back against the headboard and stretched his legs out, getting himself comfortable.

It was easily noticeable how Remus brightened up as soon as they had returned.

"So, you guys, are you afraid?" Sirius asked.

"Of what?"

"Of DADA...Professor Memphis is supposed to be teaching us about werewolves!" Sirius could not help but grin brightly at the look of horror on Remus' face. "What, you scared of werewolves?" he said, elbowing his friend lightly.

James looked at Sirius sternly, but couldn't help but admit that it was slightly comical, Remus' facial expression.

"Aw, there's nothing to worry about, Remus" Peter mumbled. "Werewolves aren't that bad at all. Not in the slightest."

**

* * *

**

I was not pleased with how this chapter turned out. I'm sorry.


	5. Wait 'Til You Meet A Real Werewolf

:D

**Disclaimer: **I like Mexican food.

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**Chapter 05 - Wait 'Til You Meet A Real Werewolf**

Being around Remus was not as awkward as Sirius had thought it was going to be. He had assumed that he'd be afraid of Remus, that whenever Remus said anything, Sirius would be worried he'd attack. But, Sirius found that there was no way he could be afraid of his minute friend.

For one, Remus was smaller than any of the other boys in second year. Hell, he was smaller than most of the girls too! He never made a lot of noise, and never came up behind Sirius and did the "Guess Who?" game that James was constantly playing. In fact, when Sirius had been slightly startled because Remus had sat down next to him while Sirius was caught up in an assignment, Remus had not laughed, but had started apologizing so copiously that Sirius could not stay angry.

Remus seemed to have gotten over his fear of Sirius's "gay pedophilic advances". Sirius was glad of this, seeing as he really had no desire to rape his friend in any way. Remus now actually took to sort of following Sirius around in a way. Sirius didn't notice at first, but when he did, he found it somewhat...endearing. He had a follower! James had Peter, and now he had Remus!

Of course, Sirius, as earlier mentioned, got into moods quite often. And when he was in a mood, he was not a nice person. Remus, being the one who was with him the most, seemed to get the full brunt of it.

"Pass me those eggs, Remus," Sirius demanded, not very kindly, at breakfast. Remus wasted no time in passing the scramble across the table closer to Sirius. Sirius did not thank him.

Sirius had not had a good night the previous night before. He'd been plagued by vicious nightmares. Most of them were about his father, although a few had included his mother. His worst one though, was of Remus. Of his father transforming into Remus, who then transformed into a werewolf...

Sirius did not say another word as the four tramped towards Defense Against The Dark Arts. Sirius had heard Remus talk often of his dislike for the teacher, Professor Giltred. However, Sirius thought the man was brilliant. He was mean, sarcastic, and paid little attention to petty things like fear. Sirius looked up to him like a...not like a father, but a much older brother. Or an uncle.

They took their seats, Remus choosing a seat by Sirius. Sirius then ordered Remus out of the seat, saying rudely that James was sitting there, not him.

Remus looked absolutely crestfallen. "I...oh, ok, that's fine," he mumbled, moving to the desk in front of Sirius. James took the seat next to Sirius, leaving Peter to take the empty seat next to Remus.

Giltred appeared from a door behind his desk soon after everyone had sat down. The man was downright scary looking; he had dark hair that hung in clumps around his head. His nose had obviously been broken numerous times, and his eyes were slightly uneven. One of his ears was missing completely. To add to his frightening demeanor was the strangest attire of all of their professors; he always wore the same black robes with various chains around his waist, arms, and hips.

"Horrible morning, isn't it class?" Giltred said, chuckling darkly. "I won't waste more of your time with such trivial things as greetings. Open your books to page 212."

For the next thirty seconds, there was the sound of flipping pages. As soon as they got to the correct page, a lot of students gasped at what they were seeing.

"Yes, yes, we're going to be learning about...werewolves." Giltred had a horrible smirk on his face, and Sirius noticed that he shot a pointed look at Remus. "Lupin! I would like you to read aloud for the class, please."

Remus gulped. "Y-yes sir! 'Of all the Dark creatures in the world, the most commonly feared is the...is the werewolf.'" Remus inhaled sharply. "Not the most deadly, but definitely the most dangerous, werewolves are lethal predators. Many werewolves are bitten as children, and taken away from their familes, to grow up away from wizards. Therefore, most werewolves hate...us..."

Sirius was confused. Giltred didn't give the class Galleons each day when they left, but he at least had a sense of decency, didn't he? He was a teacher; he obviously knew of Remus' condition...and he was forcing him to read a section on werewolves that said nothing kind at all towards the werewolf population.

"It is widely known that werewolves will position themselves close to children right before a full moon, almost guaranteeing that a new werewolf will be made that night. This is why many wizards wish for there to be a complete werewolf annihilation..."

Sirius wondered if there were tears in Remus' eyes. However, he couldn't see, because he had refused to let Remus sit by him. _God, I'm such a prick...I was horrible to him this morning, and now he has to deal with this!_

"Werewolves should, as soon as bitten, be," Remus inhaled sharply again, "killed. They are more of a burden to others than to themselves. Many parents like to think that maybe their child will get used to it, but they never do. They are forced, every full moon, to be confined completely in some way. But, werewolves are known for notorious strength, and manage to break out quite often. This is why, no matter where one is or who one knows, a werewolf is always a danger. Some werewolves even start becoming wolf-like when the full moon is not happening, and turn upon their friends and familes in the attempt to satiate their bloodlust."

Sirius did not know how to handle this situation. Remus' voice was breaking.

"Werewolves, as being half-human, lose most of their feelings and emotions...they are not capable of feeling remorse for anything they do to hurt someone else. They're horrible, cruel creatures. This is why one must know how to protect themselves from a werewolf, be it the full moon or be it the new moon. If one discovers that someone they know is a werewolf, he or she should immediately inform someone from the Department of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic. However, sometimes there is not time to inform someone who is capable of handling such a terrible creature. Therefore, in this chapter, one will learn some basic defense strategies in case he or she comes across a werewolf alone during the night."

Remus breathed in, seemingly relieved to be done reading.

"Thank you, Mr. Lupin. Would you like to tell us your thoughts on this particular piece of information?" Giltred asked cruelly.

"I...I..."

"Professor!" a voice rang out. For a second, Sirius thought the he was the one who has yelled. However, Sirius soon realized that his mouth was tightly shut, and the attention wan not directed towards him, but to his slightly pudgy and brilliant friend. It was _Peter._

"Yes, Mr. Pettigrew?"

"This...this is prejudice! Werewolves are only werewolves during the full moon, right?" Peter seemed to be regretting his decision to speak up, but he did not back down. "They are completely normal when the full moon isn't happening, so why are we being told to hate them? Professor Dumbledore would not be pleased, seeing as, during school, we are supposed to be forming our own opinions, not told what to think. And I think that werewolves aren't dangerous or scary at all."

Sirius and James were absolutely stunned. Peter was generally a shy boy, and didn't stand up for himself or others ever. But this...he had just told their scariest and most demented professor that he was _wrong._

"Professor, if I may say so, I think Peter is right," James added. "I have actually met a werewolf before, and he was just the same as you and I! In fact, he was a lot nicer than I am, hahahah..."

Sirius needed to add his two cents worth. "Professor, what if one of us was a werewolf? I don't think that the Headmaster would take so kindly to you making a fool out of them in front of the class, even though we obviously wouldn't know who they were."

The masked threat obviously got to Professor Giltred. "You...you boys are right...ten points ot Gryffindor," he muttered resentfully.

**

* * *

**

"That was brilliant!" Peter was gushing as they were walking to their next class, Herbology. "I can't believe that I stood up to a professor like that!"

James and Sirius were now both telling Peter just how awesome he was. "Peter, that most definitely was brilliant!" James applauded. Sirius shoved a stabbing pain of jealousy and added, "Yeah, I didn't know you had it in you! You're definitely a true Gryffindor, man."

Their good spirits were cut off, however, when Remus spoke up. "But you're wrong," he muttered.

"What do you mean? Peter is too a true Gryffindor!" Sirius snapped back, angrily.

"No, no, not that! I do think you're a true Gryffindor Peter!" Remus protested, looking ashamed that he had let them misunderstand him like that. "I only mean that you're wrong about werewolves. They are horrible. They do deserve to be killed as soon as their bitten. They only make the lives of everyone around them worse," Remus ended in a whisper.

"Hey! I resent that! What if I were a werewolf?" James asked. "Would you still say that?"

Remus seemed to be somewhat tongue-tied. "Well, I, you see, but..."

"Yeah, I think you should meet a werewolf before you form opinions about them," Peter added. Sirius and James were both struggling not to laugh at Peter's idiotic comment, seeing as Remus was a werewolf himself.

"What do you know!?" Remus suddenly snapped. "You've never met a werewolf! Maybe they're really as horrible as everyone says they are!"

"I have too met a werewolf," Peter mumbled back resentfully. "Fine, fine, let's just not talk about this anymore, and save our opinions until we've all met a real werewolf..."

**

* * *

**

The rest of the day though, Sirius made an effort to be extra nice to Remus. He was aware of how awful he'd been being to his poor friend for the first half of the day, and spent the rest of the day trying to make up for it. Remus, however, did not seem to realize that Sirius was trying to be nice to him, and continued to try and..._serve _him. Remus was acting like he was Sirius' own personal house-elf.

"Sirius, would you like some more pumpkin juice?" Remus asked softly.

"Uh...no, I'm fine, really, but thank you," Sirius said, barely managing to keep his voice under control. Remus continued on like this for the rest of the day. Sirius also noted, with a stabbing pang of guilt, that in Transfiguration, Remus deliberately chose the seat in front of Sirius, instead of the seat next to him.

Sirius finally got a little fed up when, while he and Remus were in the library, Remus offered to do his homework for him.

"What is wrong with you?" Sirius asked. "You have never **offered **to do my homework for me!" Granted, he'd begged Remus to do it plenty of times, but Remus had never actually asked if he could.

"Well, I just..." Remus trailed off. Sirius knew that it was slightly difficult for the boy to express his feelings, and that it would take a little bit of prodding.

"You just what?" Sirius sharply asked. He winced when he realized how harsh he had made that sound.

"I just don't want you to kick me out of the group," Remus admitted in an embarrassed whisper. He blushed and ducked his head.

"Why would I do that?" Sirius asked, sincerely wanting to know the answer.

"I've just been being such a bother lately, and I don't want you to hate me for it," Remus mumbled.

"No, no, you aren't the one being a bother Remus," Sirius muttered darkly. "That's been me. I haven't exactly been treating you like I should be, and...I'm sorry..."

Remus looked up into his eyes somewhat apprehensively. "Are...are you sure? Because I mean, I can understand if you really do want to kick me out of the group, I wouldn't try to guilt trip you or anything..."

Sirius decided that it would be smart to not mention that just Remus saying this was making a huge knife stab of guilt go through his stomach. "Remus, no! I don't want to kick you out, believe me, and I never will."

**

* * *

**

April 28th sprang upon them quicker than Sirius fancied, for this was going to be Remus' first full moon with the Marauders aware of his "condition". They had been giving him encouraging little smiles and thumbs up all day. Remus had appeared confused, but grateful.

They had been planning on throwing him a party before he left (since he usually disappeared from the dorms between 6:00 and 7:00). However, Sirius had yet again managed to get himself in trouble with Professor McGonagall, and was serving a long detention which included, but was not limited to, relabeling each file that the strict witch possessed.

Sirius looked out of the window at the full moon and felt somewhat scared. Now that he knew where Remus got all of those scrapes...well, he just didn't particularly like the thought of tiny Remus transforming into a hideous creature, whilst being trapped somewhere, and scratching himself up so that he did not attack other humans.

"Werewolves not capable of feeling remorse, my ass," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"What was that, Mr. Black?"

"Nothing Professor," Sirius replied, going back to his relabeling task at hand. However, he found his eyes going towards the window towards the full moon more often than he would have liked.

As if he'd been waiting patiently for it, Sirius watched a woman emerge from the Whomping Willow. Sirius looked furtively over at McGonagall, but she did not seem to be paying any attention to him in the least. Sirius peeked back out the window to witness the strange scene again.

Sirius did not know what that lady was doing inside the Whomping Willow's trunk, but he was determined to find out. He watched the lady poke something on the trunk and the tree immediately stopped thrashing.

_Well well well, looks like the Marauders have a good little plan for tomorrow, _Sirius thought with a sly grin.

**

* * *

**

Sorry to leave you here. It would have just been overkill to keep this chapter going.


	6. Into The Willow

I have an apology at the end of this chapter. Actually, two apologies.

**Disclaimer: **I'm JK Rowling. And now that the seventh Harry Potter is done, I am legally allowed onto these sites. I find it so much more fulfilling to write cheap, free stories than to write my multi-million dollar novels that these cheap, free stories are about. But hey, I came up with Harry Potter, didn't I? I'm allowed to be a little crazy.

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**Chapter 6 - Into The Willow**

"YOU GUYS!" Sirius yelled, trying his best to wake the other two up when he returned from his detention. "You guys, I have the grandest plan ever!"

James looked eager, while Peter looked a little scared.

"Okay, so, I was in McGonagall's office, right? Did I tell you about what I saw last time I was there? The people walking into the Whomping Willow's trunk?" Both James and Peter shook their heads. "Ah, guess it was only Remus I told...anyways, a lady walked out of the Whomping Willow! Like, out of the TRUNK!And when she walked out, she pressed something on the base of the trunk, and it didn't attack her! She made it out of the Whomping Willow _without being whomped!"_

James was starting to catch on. "Are you saying, that under my invisibility cloak, we should go down to the Whomping Willow and try to get inside it?"

"YES!"

Peter, however, was not so keen. "You guys, it's already late, I'm so tired! Besides, shouldn't we wait for Remus to come too? It would be horribly rude for us to go out when he's not physically able to come..."

Sirius pondered this. "Yeah, Pete, you're right," he finally admitted. Peter looked pleased, since it obviously wasn't so often that he heard praise such as this. "We'll do it tomorrow night then. I want to see what's there! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Sirius crossed the room and flung himself onto his bed, directly across from Peter's and directly next to James'.

"I wonder how Remus is," James said softly a few moments later. Instantly, the good mood that Sirius had created evaporated.

"I hope he's not in too much pain..." Peter mumbled.

"You guys, this is horrible! How can we ever let him confine himself every full moon just to protect us!?" Sirius said with a horrid slant towards misery in his voice. "We've got to do something...we've got to somehow make it so he doesn't have to hurt himself ever again! I wish we could like, keep him company or something..."

"Well, werewolves don't like the blood of animals, do they?" James said.

"Oh, that's a PHENOMENAL idea," Peter said sarcastically. "Let's just become Animagi and go to...to...wherever he is...every full moon and keep him company, why don't we?!"

Sirius' eyes widened. "Peter..." He exchanged a look with James. "Oh my God, Peter...you're BLOODY BRILLIANT!"

"W-what? I am?"

Sirius' grin was more than just gleeful -- it was nauseatingly full of his teeth. "Yes! We can all teach ourselves to transform into animals! Then, we can transform with him and keep him company! We can even tell him to hurt us instead of himself, that way he won't be scarring himself any more than he already has to! Oh Merlin, this is the best idea we've ever had!"

Peter's eyes were wide.

"Uh, Sirius?" James asked cautiously. "I'm not sure that that is such a good idea..."

"It's damn amazing!" Sirius retorted. "What, it's not like we aren't already risk-takers! We're Gryffindors! We should do this, this is in our BLOOD, we need to be loyal to our best mate!"

James and Peter both knew that arguing was most likely pointless, but they still had to try. "Sirius, it's a good idea, but do you have any idea how much work it takes to become one of those? McGonagall says that it takes some of the best wizards five + years to figure it out!" James exclaimed.

"Oh boo-sodding-hoo!" Sirius replied. "If you guys aren't going to do it, I'm still going to, whether you want me to or not!"

It was a long while before any of them got to sleep that night.

**

* * *

**

Sirius had been so sure that Remus would have liked the idea of getting into the Whomping Willow. Remus, though somewhat bookish, had a mind all up in the pranks and schemes, and was a rather brilliant mastermind when it came to the Marauders' jokes. Not to mention, he had an unsatiable curiosity that no amount of secret passageways and uncovered treasure could possibly fulfill. He would normally have loved to sneak out at night, risking trouble for the mere thrill of it, just so that he could find out what was inside that tree. However, Remus appeared to be somewhat...apprehensive. This was not a normal Remus reaction to something of this magnitude.

"Guys, there's so much that could go wrong!" Remus had said.

"Oh, who cares?" said Sirius. Sirius was trying to mask his concern for Remus' actions by being nonchalant about the whole deal.

"But we might end up with detention!"

"So? We've gotten loads of detentions!"

"Obviously, this pathway is covered by the Willow for a reason, so we shouldn't be butting into business that's so obviously not ours!" Remus begged.

"Pathway?" Sirius asked, his eyebrow cocked. "How do you know if it's a pathway or not?" Remus was acting very strangely, and him saying that this was a pathway...it was quite odd, in Sirius' opinion.

"I...I don't...b-but, it must be some sort of secret passage or something, right?"

This only fueled Sirius' eagerness more, as Remus had obviously realized just as soon as he had said it, for his face soon became even more hopeless. Sirius grinned maniacally.

"Remus, you are a bloody genius!" Sirius gushed, making Remus blush slightly.

"Er, well, no, you see..."

Sirius did not allow Remus to fight back any longer. "Remus. Buddy. Friend. Mate. If you are really so adamant on us not going, then maybe you should just stay here." Sirius was well aware that this would make Remus more inclined to come, because he rather disliked being left out of anything, no matter how small the occasion.

"No, no, I do want to come, I will come with you," Remus said, finally resigning to his fate.

"Good." The conversation was closed after that.

The boys stayed up until around midnight, and after they were fairly certain that everyone had gone from the common room, they all huddled underneath the Invisibility Cloak and slipped out of the Gryffindor Tower.

"I think we're getting a little too tall to do this," Remus whispered when they were out in the hallways and the cloak was flapping dangerously around their ankles.

"Aww, don't worry Loopy, no one's gonna see us," Sirius said back (not even bothering to keep his voice down!) with a toothy grin. He had called Remus 'Loopy' on purpose, knowing it irritated the boy to no end.

Outside of the castle walls they walked, finally getting close to the Whomping Willow. It was quiet, having not noticed their presence yet.

"Okay, she poked at something on the base of the trunk, and it didn't attack her" Sirius muttered. "Get a big stick," he ordered, not caring who complied. It was Remus who found a long enough stick, and he handed it to Sirius. "Okay, I'm just going to poke it," Sirius said, mustering up all of the courage he had. He reached, further and further, almost touching the bottom...

There. He poked it.

But the tree, which was supposed to stay silent, did not do so. Instead, it started thrashing around wildly. The four boys screamed, and tried their best to avoid getting whomped. The scene went on for about a minute longer when the tree stopped moving; Sirius uncovered his head (which he had been holding his hands over for protection) and saw Remus holding the long stick, which he had apparently used to stop the tree.

"M-Mate?"

"I think I poked it in the right place," Remus whispered. He sported a large gash on his cheek, which was leaking a little bit of blood. Sirius ran up to him and started fussing.

"Remus, it got you! Right on the face! Oh bloody hell! Are you alright!?"

"I'm fine," Remus said, grinning. James and Peter both walked up to them, looking at Remus with concern, but staying silent.

"So, how do we get inside it?" James asked. Sirius shrugged and walked over to the tree, not too afraid that it would start hitting again.

"You guys, we should hurry up; it won't stay comatose forever," Remus warned.

"Bahaha, Remus is like an encyclopedia on this tree," Sirius said with a laugh. "Oh my GOD! I found something!" he said suddenly. The other boys walked over to him and saw exactly what he had seen -- a hole, hidden between the roots, leading down to what looked like a passage. "Remus was right, this does seem to be a passageway," Sirius remarked. "Wonder where it leads..."

The Marauders, now fueled by curiosity, went down the relatively narrow passageway single-file, Sirius in front and Remus bringing up the rear. It was a long path, and Peter's wheezes had just started filling up the silence that had developed between them when they reached a door.

All four of them stopped dead in their tracks. Sirius looked back at the group, his eyes betraying just the slightest hint of fear overrun by excitement and eagerness. "Well mates? Should we try it?"

"I don't know," Remus said. "We don't have a clue what could possibly be on the other side of that door!"

"So? We've got wands, we're second-years...we can fight it off, whatever it is," James said.

"Well, you can," Peter mumbled.

All was silent, until Sirius decided to break the silence by just going ahead and opening the door.

The boys walked in slowly; no matter how well they could fight 'it' off, they were all a little bit scared. Some for different reasons than others. The inside of wherever they were appeared to be a house of some sort, although it was so mussed up and messy that there was no way anyone could actually live there. Sirius noted that the walls seemed to be almost scratched up, as if a particularly rabid cat had come by one day. Or more than one day.

"Wow...what the bloody hell is this place?" Sirius breathed.

"You guys, we should leave!" Remus said. He didn't sound like a calm do-gooder correct-decision-maker anymore. He sounded panicked, as if he were actually seriously afraid.

Sirius gave Remus an irritated look. "Remus, stop being such a baby! Nothing's going to attack us!"

"No...that's not...oh, never mind!" Remus looked away with an embarrassed flush.

"No, tell us!" Peter urged eagerly.

"I just don't like it, the vibes here feel weird, like a dark and dangerous creature comes here sometimes..."

"Dark? Dangerous?" Peter said in a whispery breath.

"Yeah. Like...like..."

"A werewolf?" Sirius supplied.

"Exactly," Remus muttered, looking miserable. And all of a sudden, Sirius understood. It made perfect sense, all of it! Why Remus knew so much about the damn tree, why he was so adamant on them leaving... in fact, he'd seen Remus go into the tree one time!! How had he not realized it before, it was so completely obvious now that he practically wanted to smack himself on the head.

"Alright guys, let's get out of here," Sirius acquiesced.

James and Peter gave Sirius a confused look, but Sirius just looked at them meaningfully.

"W-what? But you were so keen on exploring!" Remus protested. "Don't let me ruin all the fun!"

"Oh, it's not you," Sirius said nonchalantly. "It's just, uhm, James and Peter and I have something we've got to work on in the library. Yeah. Uhm. We should get back..."

Sirius didn't miss the slightly muffled intake of breath, nor the dejected slump of Remus' shoulders, when he said it.

**

* * *

**

"You guys, that's where he goes," Sirius said, once they were all settled at one of the work tables.

"Huh?" Both James and Peter took part in this confused response.

"It's where he goes during the full moons! Didn't you see the claw marks? And Remus has been trying to protest going in there since I mentioned it! And, he knows a grand amount of information about that damned tree, including the proper place to make it stop flailing it's sodding branches around."

"Sirius, I...wow. You're brilliant," James complimented.

"Yeah...holy mother of God..." Peter said breathily.

They all stayed silent for a moment. Then, Peter spoke up again. "You guys, I think we should tell him that we know."

"Why?!?" Sirius asked sharply.

"Because...I mean, if we tell him, then he'll feel so much better...like, you know how it feels like a weight's been lifted off of your shoulders? He'll feel like that, and be really happy, because he'll realize that we don't want to leave him like that stupid Defense book says we should."

It was possibly the most important speech Peter had ever made, second only to the one he'd done in DADA. Sirius was impressed.

"Peter, I feel incredibly odd saying this, but...you're right."

James sniggered.

"But I'm going to tell him. I don't want you guys there."

They both glared.

"Sirius, no. We're going to be there too, he's our friend just as much as yours!" James protested.

Sirius shot James a hard look. "Look, no offense you guys, but he trusts me the most. I think it'll be easier for him to tell his secret to just one person and then he'll be able to explain it to you guys with someone else on his side..."

James and Peter didn't look too happy. Sirius couldn't imagine why they would be. Sirius didn't like being left out of important things either. But though he didn't know where this urging had come from, he knew that he just had to be the one that Remus 'told' first.

Peter grudgingly muttered a 'Whatever' and James rolled his eyes. "Better get back up to the dorm then, Lover-Boy," James muttered. "We're coming back up there in an hour, so you'd better already have talked to him."

Sirius grinned, and without a proper goodbye, he ran out of the library and in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

**

* * *

**

_**Apology One - **_I'm dreadfully sorry that I don't reply to all the reviews. I just don't have the time. I usually reply to the long, well thought out ones though, so if you send me a really long review I'll usually reply and try to answer your questions or just reply to your comments...it's just too time consuming to reply to everyone and just saying "Thanks!" But believe me, I can't thank all you reviewers enough.

_**Apology Two -**_ I'm sorry this took so long. I've started 10th grade and I'm taking Honors Algebra 2, Physics, Chemistry, Spanish II, and Honors English, (along with three other electives) and I'm doing cross country, and I'm reading other stories, and typing another story, and I'm just kind of...full right now. So yeah. I'm sorry that this took a while.

Next chapter is the end! Are you excited?


	7. Touching Up On Some Touchy Subjects

It's been a long time since I've updated. More than three months.

For that, I give you permission to kill me.

**Disclaimer: **I listened in, yes, I'm guilty of this, you should know this; I broke down and wrote you back before you had a chance to forget forgotten…

**Chapter 7 – Touching Up On Some Touchy Subjects**

Sirius didn't put much thought into what he was doing. He didn't think about what he was going to say. He didn't even bother to think about the kindest way to approach his tiny friend. He barged into the dormitory, no second thoughts, saying, "Dammit Remus, we need to talk, and we need to do it now!"

But Remus wasn't there.

Sirius' blood ran cold. Remus had gone back up to the dorms. They had walked to the parting hallway together, and Sirius had said, "See you later in the dorms Remus!"

Remus had nodded, but he had not looked very happy.

Sirius felt like a downright jerk. It had just occurred to him how very obvious his excuse was to ignore his furry friend. Clearly, Sirius, James and Peter could in no way have had a project they needed to work on that Remus was not a part of, because Remus had all the exact same classes as them. Remus must have thought that they hated him; with his dreadfully low self-confidence, Sirius would not put it past Remus to be planning his suicide at the very moment.

All of a sudden, it struck Sirius as exceedingly crucial to need to find his self-loathing friend.

Sirius fished around in James' trunk for the new little project that they'd been working on – a complete and all detailed map of the school. They'd done a general outline of the school, and then figured out how to put each of them into the map, so that whoever was looking at the map could find out where any of the four Marauders were. They were still trying to make it so that whoever was in the school, at any particular time someone happened to be looking at it, would show up on the map, but none of them had found a spell that could do something quite so advanced.

It took Sirius a moment to find the dot labeled "Remus J. Lupin," but when he did, he couldn't help but feel a little relief. His friend was occupying an empty classroom, not the Astronomy Tower as Sirius had strongly feared.

_Oh, I'm just being paranoid, _Sirius thought to himself with a grim grin on his face. _Remus is not planning his own suicide. He is more likely planning some elaborate hoax to make James and Peter and I sorry that we ever crossed him._

Sirius ignored the tiny little voice in his head that told him that Remus was much more likely to hurt himself than hurt someone else, and traipsed out of the Gryffindor Tower to find his werewolfish friend.

**

* * *

**

Sirius opened the classroom door slowly and quietly, so as not to scare Remus. Remus frightened easily. "Hey, buddy? Remus? I know you're in here, I can see you on the map, so don't hide or nothing."

Sirius stepped into the classroom and shut the door. For a moment, it seemed like the room was empty. Sirius had a horrible thought that maybe, Remus was here, but not… _here…_

Then Remus came from behind a pillar, looking embarrassed and sheepish. "Why are you here?" he asked with a small voice. He looked almost like he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

Sirius literally pounced on him. "REMUS! YOU'RE ALIVE!!"

Sirius had not realized he was so worried about Remus doing something stupid like suicie. But Sirius had been. He had been more worried than he'd ever been in his entire life about something besides saving his own skin.

"Well, yes, I am," Remus said, not sounding the least bit happy about that fact.

"I was so afraid that when me and James and Peter, when we left to go to the library, that you were so sad and lonely feeling that you decided to come KILL YOURSELF! And then I walked in here, and it said you were here on the map, but there was no noise, and I thought for a second, that you were DEAD!!!" Sirius held onto his friend so tightly, he thought he might break Remus' bones. _Well, he's a werewolf, he can stand some pain, _Sirius thought, before loosening his grip just a slight.

Remus gave Sirius an awkward sort of pat on the back. "Well… I am not dead."

"You know that we weren't ignoring you," Sirius said, all too aware of how gay he and Remus must look like right then, hugging in the center of an empty classroom in the dead of night. He couldn't bring himself to care though. "We were actually going to the library, because we had something to discuss, and you couldn't hear it!"

He felt Remus' grip slacken.

"Oh, no, wait. That didn't come out right." Sirius then felt like a prat, because really, that had been exactly what they were doing, and there was no way to sugarcoat it to sound better. "Well, that was what we were doing, but it wasn't because you weren't cool enough or anything. Oh bollocks. Remus, don't be mad at me! We just had something important to discuss, and yeah, it was about you. But I can tell you now! I mean. It wasn't something bad about you. We weren't figuring out how to spread rumors that you were shagging Annabelle or anything."

Sirius was now completely conscious of his utter prattiness, judging by the way that Remus was now trying to step away from him. Sirius just couldn't say what he wanted to say, without sounding like a prick.

"Don't take it the wrong way, mate!" Sirius pleaded. "If it wasn't concerning your secret, we'd never have ignored you like that. But if you'd been there, you'd have done everything in your power to keep us from finding the answer, and you know it. Don't deny it, Remus!"

"So I take it, you've now given up on trying to figure me out?" Remus guessed. He was now completely not touching Sirius. He'd even taken a step back, as if Sirius had some nasty blemish right on the tip of his nose or something.

"No, we did figure it out!" Sirius could not keep the proud note out of his voice.

Remus didn't happen to share Sirius' enthusiasm or pride. "Look, you didn't figure it out."

"Yeah. I did."

"No. You didn't!"

"Yes! I most certainly and truly figured out why you leave every month!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Sirius, if you'd found out, you would definitely not have given a crap whether I killed myself or not."

Sirius glared. "Yes I would! Yes I did! You're my best friend Remus!"

"Heh. Right after JAMES and PETER."

Sirius sighed. "Okay, so honestly, James is my guy when it comes to having fun. But you're my guy when it comes to the more important stuff, like talking! You're the person I'd trust with my SECRETS. You're the one who can reassure me of myself, who can keep me from going over the edge. I wish I could do the same for you, but you never let me, like right now! Remus, I care about you so much. I would fucking go to the Afterlife and drag you back here myself, if you were dead."

Remus looked touched, and a slight bit embarrassed. "Sirius… I…" Remus shook his head. "I don't know what to say, I wish I knew what to say, you know I think the same about you… oh… I can't talk…"

Sirius smiled and hugged him again, not bothering to take into account Remus' unnatural flinching habit. Remus would have to get over that, for he knew Sirius would never hurt him. "I know buddy. I know."

All was quiet, and perfect harmony fell between the two students.

Until:

"But really. You didn't figure out my secret, Sirius."

Sirius pulled away enough to glare down into Remus' now somewhat frightened eyes. "I did too!"

"No…"

"YES!"

"No, really, believe me, you didn't"-

"Yes! I did! YOU ARE A WEREWOLF. One of those humans that turns into a man-eating beast once a month. Every full moon, whatever. Can't touch silver. That type of thing."

Remus had gone so utterly stiff in Sirius' arms that Sirius was afraid he might have given the poor guy a heart attack. "Remus? Are you alright?"

Remus pushed him, with all his force. "What is wrong with you!?"

For a fleeting second, Sirius was a little worried that he'd just made a big fool out of himself. Maybe Remus wasn't really a werewolf. Maybe they'd gotten all the signs wrong. It would be Sirius who'd gotten all the signs wrong, for he'd done most, if not all of the research on Remus.

"Merlin mate, settle down. So you're not a werewolf, I'm sorry, it did NOT require pushing…" Sirius said, feigning a careless voice. He really did hurt somewhere deep down. He'd made a fool out of himself in front of the one person who he was supposed to be able to tell anything. Remus had pushed him away, like a dirty sock, like a moldy piece of toast.

"Why are you even talking to me? I AM a bloody werewolf! You should be running away, far away! Reporting me. Screaming."

Sirius realized that he'd been RIGHT. Remus just didn't understand friendship, that was all that was wrong. "Oh mate, settle down. You don't understand what it means to be best friends, do you? You know, accepting everything, even the flaws, even the big flaws… although I personally don't count it a flaw, I see it more like… a personality trait… with some big consequences-"

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" Remus' eyes had a crazed look in them. Sirius had never seen his mate like this before. "Just think about it! I am the most hated magical BEAST out there! Everyone hates werewolves, the mothers are always saying, 'Stay inside Johnny, it's a full moon, the werewolves might be out tonight!' And then, even when it's not the full moon, I've still got this… this monster running through my veins! All the time! I AM A MONSTER SIRIUS! I am a cold-blooded, heartless, MONSTER! I deserve to be killed. That book we read in Giltred's class is right. I am more of a burden than anything else. I will never fit in. I will never find true love. I am a beast of burden, and I really should die!"

Sirius was shocked. "But Remus, it's only once a month… and you take your best care not to hurt anybody, I know that…"

"LOOK AT ME!" Remus tore his shirt from his body, and Sirius was presented, in the light of the waning moon, a body more scarred than Sirius could ever have imagined on such an undersized boy. "I am hideous! I do this to myself, but if I weren't locked up, I would be doing this to OTHER PEOPLE! Can't you see how dangerous I am? I'd rip you to shreds in an instant with no second thoughts, and you wouldn't even know it was coming."

Sirius stepped up to Remus slowly. "Okay. So you think you're a monster. Hideous mongrel, child-eating menace, beast of burden, whatever you want to call it."

Remus cringed, obviously expecting something not so nice to come from Sirius after he'd started to speak.

"But Remus, there's a flaw in your logic, and that is that a monster does not do things in order to save others grief. No monster would have offered to do my homework for me. No monster would lock himself up and let himself take all of the pain that shouldn't really be happening to them. What the stereotypical monster werewolves do are hurt people, because they don't want themselves to get hurt by locking themselves up. Except you don't care for yourself much, do you? Because you're willing to beat up yourself once a full moon to save someone else the pain. Not many werewolves are as kind and selfless as you are, Remus. So, you may read that werewolves are a terror to society, only caring about themselves, unleashing pain onto others as selfishly as possible. But you're not one of those werewolves, Remus. You're not. You're not a monster. You care so much about humanity that you're willing to hurt yourself to save others."

Sirius was well aware that his speech was a little cheesy, and that he'd have been teased endlessly had he said something like this to James or Peter. But Remus appeared to have taken it right to heart. He stepped forward, timidly, but forward, to Sirius and kind of wordlessly asked for a hug. He'd awkwardly held his hands up a little bit, and widened his arm span just the slightest. Sirius had picked the hint up almost instantly and accepted Remus into his arms.

_I am such a homosexual._

"So you don't think I'm ugly?" Remus asked, just barely above a whisper.

"No! Where would you get that idea?"

"M-my scars…"

Sirius just shook his head. "NO. You are not ugly! I wish you wouldn't have to do that to yourself every month though. I wish I could stop it."

"You can't."

"I know. I just really hate the idea of you in pain."

Remus grinned against Sirius' shoulder.

They maintained a comfortable silence for a little while, and then made their way back up to the dorms.

Sirius noticed, with a somewhat possessive grin on his face, that Remus was now happy again. He was smiling like crazy. He attempted to hide it whenever Sirius looked at him, but Sirius didn't mind. It had been because of him that Remus was happy. Sirius felt like the king of the world.

Peter and James were already there when Sirius and Remus came back. "See James? I told you they were off shagging," Peter said matter-of-factly as soon as they walked in the door.

Sirius punched him.

"So, Sirius, did you… you know?" James asked, after Peter had fallen down on the floor clutching his bleeding nose. Remus kneeled down beside him and tried to help him, leaving James and Sirius mostly ignored.

"We didn't shag, I'm not gay!"

"NO! I mean. You know. Did you, tell him?"

Sirius flushed a deep shade of red. "Yeah. He knows that we know."

"Why were you guys gone then?" James then asked. Sirius could hear the hint of a sexual innuendo in his words.

"I'm twelve years old James! What are you expecting from me, you sick perv?!"

Ah. All was well in the Gryffindor Second-Year Boys Dormitory.

Well, minus the tiny little miniscule unimportant details that one of them was bleeding, one of them was horny, one of them was contemplating his sexuality, and one of them was a werewolf. But what else would you expect from a group of four cooped up twelve year old boys?

**The End**

That felt like an awkward place to end it. Oh well.

So, I might write a "sequel": the same story, only all the events would be from Remus' point of view. Would that be too redundant?

I also think I am going to write a story about Sirius' sexuality. I mean, seriously. He is so gay; he needs a story written about it. :P


End file.
